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Road to Readiness

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The Road to Readiness (R2R) initiative was developed to help Maryland Responders complete the steps required for volunteer deployment. All Maryland Responders, regardless of professional background, must complete theRoad to Readinesssteps to be eligible for participation in Maryland Responds deployments and to be protected by state liability coverage during deployments.

Complete Your Road to Readiness Steps

Visit the following links for instructions on completing each of these steps:

Click here to download a PDF version of the Road to Readiness Checklist.

Ready Responder Kit

Once you have completed all Road to Readiness steps, you will be assigned Ready Responder Status (see below for more information). Ready Responders are fully eligible for participation in Maryland Responds local and state training, exercise, public health and emergency response activities to the level as their licensure and skill level will allow.

As a Ready Responder, you will also receive your Ready Responder Kit which includes a backpack containing your Responder uniform, ID badge, field guide and more.

Your Ready Responder Kit will be mailed to the primary mailling address that you have listed in your Responder profile. Kits that are returned due to an incorrect address listed in your profile will be held at our office for you to pick up - they will not be mailed twice.

The State MRC Program is responsible for tracking Road to Readiness and issuing Responder ID badges. Any questions can be directed to your State Administrators at mdresponds.dhmh@maryland.gov.

Ready Responder Status

Ready Responders have completed all Road to Readiness (R2R) steps: Responder profile; Orientation with NIMS/ICS primer; Submitted liability and confidentiality forms; Submitted ID badge photo; Submitted uniform size. The Maryland Responds State Program has verified the credentials of these Responders (when applicable) and has issued their Responder ID badge and Ready Responder Kit. Ready Responders are approved to fully participate in all local or state unit activities (incident response planned events, training and exercise activities) to the level their licensure and skill level will allow.

Advanced Ready Responder Status

Advanced Ready Responders are those volunteers who want to take on more responsibility in the Maryland Responds MRC. Responders in this group have completed all Road to Readiness steps and the Maryland Responds State Program has verified their credentials (when applicable) and has issued their Responder ID badge and Ready Responder Kit. Additionally, these volunteers have completed the NIMS baseline curriculum courses (Independent Study-700 and ICS-100). Advanced Ready Responders are approved to fully participate in all local or state unit activities (incident response planned events, training and exercise activities) to the level their licensure and skill level will allow. In addition, volunteers in this group may be assigned to leadership roles in unit activities and are eligible to serve as mutual aid to support incident management in other states.

Required Training for Advanced Ready Responder Status

Check Your Progress

Previously, volunteers had to email the State Program to see where they were on the Road to Readiness. Now, you can view this information at anytime through the training section of your Responder profile. As shown in the screen clip below, a training course has been created for each of the Road to Readiness steps. Each step that you have completed has been added to your Responder profile and verified by the State Program. As you complete additional steps, you can add the corresponding training course to your profile. Once all steps are completed, the training section of your Responder profile will look similar to the screen clip shown below.